Who is the last author on a paper? Is it the person who did the least work? Or is it the PI of the lab where the work was done? When I started grad school (in 2000), the norm in ecology was still that the last author on a paper is the person who did the least work. But, more recently, it has seemed to me that the norm is that the last author on a paper is the “senior” author (usually the PI). However, if you talk with other ecologists about the topic, it’s clear that there’s variation in views, and that not everyone is on the same page.
{add more here on literature and what others have done on similar topics – see Evernote file for more on that}
Thinking about this topic as we were settling on authorship order for a manuscript recently led me to post a series of tweets where I mused about authorship practices in ecology which then led me to do a poll on Dynamic Ecology related to the topic. The poll was developed with input from Alex Bond, Linda Campbell, Kathy Cottingham, and Andrea Kirkwood, who all helped me think through what to ask about and how to phrase the questions and answer options. Many thanks to them for their help! And, while I’m doing acknowledgments, Auriel Fournier, Jaime Ashander, and Rayna Harris provided R help that got me over some key hurdles. Finally, this poll was confirmed as exempt from ongoing IRB review (UMich IRB #: HUM00114140).
The poll had four main questions:
It also asked about the respondent’s primary research area, whether their research is primarily basic or applied, how frequently they conduct interdisciplinary research, how many years post-PhD they are, where they live, and what their current department is.
The poll first appeared on 6 April 2016 and ran for two weeks.
Four blank entries were deleted. I am a bad person and used excel to add in numeric codes for the different answers. The key is:
For the question about whether last author is the senior author:
1 = No
2 = It depends, but probably no
3 = Not sure, but probably no
4 = Not sure, but probably yes
5 = It depends, but probably yes
6 = Yes
For the question about current corresponding author practices:
1 = The corresponding author is the person that has taken responsibility for fielding questions about the paper post-publication
2 = The corresponding author is the person with the most stable contact info and/or internet access
3 = The corresponding author is usually the person who uploaded the files (usually the first author)
4 = The corresponding author is usually the senior author
5 = The corresponding author uploaded the files, managed the revisions and wrote the response to reviewers, and took responsibility for the paper after publication
For the question about best corresponding author practices:
1 = The corresponding author should be the person that has taken responsibility for fielding questions about the paper post-publication
2 = The corresponding author should be the person with the most stable contact info and/or internet access
3 = The corresponding author should be whichever person uploaded the files (usually the first author)
4 = The corresponding author should be the senior author
5 = The corresponding author should be the person who uploaded the files, managed the revisions and wrote the response to reviewers, and took responsibility for the paper after publication
For the question about the CV statement:
1 = No
2 = I have never seen this, but would probably not pay attention to it
3 = I have never seen this, but would probably pay attention to it
4 = Yes
For the question about research area:
1 = Ecology (primarily field-based)
2 = Ecology (primarily wet-lab based, including molecular ecology)
3 = Ecology (primarily computational-based)
4 = Evolutionary biology (primarily molecular)
5 = Evolutionary biology (primarily organismal)
6 = Biology other than EEB
7 = Outside biology
For the basic vs. applied question:
1 = basic
2 = applied
For the interdisciplinarity question:
1 = Never
2 = Rarely
3 = Sometimes
4 = Often
5 = Always
Years since PhD
1 = 0 (current students and people without a PhD should choose this)
2 = 1-5
3 = 6-10
4 = 11-15
5 = 16-20
6 = >20
7 = I do not have a PhD and am not a current student
Where live?
1 = Africa
2 = Asia
3 = Australia
4 = Europe
5 = North America
6 = South America
Department:
1 = An EEB department (or similar)
2 = A biology department
3 = A natural resources department (or similar)
4 = other
After removing the four blank responses, there were 1122 responses to the poll. What did the respondents look like?
| PrimaryResearch | n | rel.freq |
|---|---|---|
| Biology other than EEB | 24 | 2 |
| Ecology (primarily computational-based) | 217 | 19 |
| Ecology (primarily field-based) | 558 | 50 |
| Ecology (primarily wet-lab based, including molecular ecology) | 119 | 11 |
| Evolutionary biology (primarily molecular) | 51 | 5 |
| Evolutionary biology (primarily organismal) | 130 | 12 |
| Outside biology | 21 | 2 |
| BasicApplied | n | rel.freq |
|---|---|---|
| Applied | 362 | 33 |
| Basic | 751 | 67 |
| Interdisciplinary | n | rel.freq |
|---|---|---|
| Always | 50 | 4 |
| Often | 271 | 24 |
| Sometimes | 401 | 36 |
| Rarely | 293 | 26 |
| Never | 99 | 9 |
| YearssincePhD | n | rel.freq |
|---|---|---|
| 0 (current students should choose this) | 311 | 28 |
| 5-Jan | 344 | 31 |
| 10-Jun | 200 | 18 |
| 15-Nov | 136 | 12 |
| 16-20 | 57 | 5 |
| >20 | 53 | 5 |
| I do not have a PhD and am not a current student | 20 | 2 |
| WhereLive | n | rel.freq |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | 8 | 1 |
| Asia | 13 | 1 |
| Australia | 63 | 6 |
| Europe | 288 | 26 |
| North America | 717 | 64 |
| South America | 30 | 3 |
| Dept01 | n | rel.freq |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 304 | 28 |
| 2 | 444 | 41 |
| 3 | 212 | 19 |
| 4 | 134 | 12 |
## # A tibble: 6 × 3
## LastSenior01 n rel.freq
## <int> <int> <dbl>
## 1 1 77 7
## 2 2 61 5
## 3 3 19 2
## 4 4 88 8
## 5 5 395 35
## 6 6 480 43
## [1] 1 2 3 4 5 6
## Levels: 1 2 3 4 5 6
## # A tibble: 5 × 3
## CorrespondingCurrent01 n rel.freq
## <int> <int> <dbl>
## 1 1 182 16
## 2 2 37 3
## 3 3 215 19
## 4 4 82 7
## 5 5 602 54
## # A tibble: 5 × 3
## CorrespondingBest01 n rel.freq
## <int> <int> <dbl>
## 1 1 266 24
## 2 2 40 4
## 3 3 84 8
## 4 4 46 4
## 5 5 676 61
## # A tibble: 4 × 3
## CVStatement01 n rel.freq
## <int> <int> <dbl>
## 1 1 87 8
## 2 2 234 21
## 3 3 538 49
## 4 4 245 22
## The following `from` values were not present in `x`: Biology other than EEB, Ecology (primarily computational-based), Ecology (primarily field-based), Ecology (primarily wet-lab based, including molecular ecology), Evolutionary biology (primarily molecular), Evolutionary biology (primarily organismal), Outside biology
## Scale for 'y' is already present. Adding another scale for 'y', which
## will replace the existing scale.
## Scale for 'y' is already present. Adding another scale for 'y', which
## will replace the existing scale.
## Scale for 'y' is already present. Adding another scale for 'y', which
## will replace the existing scale.
## Scale for 'y' is already present. Adding another scale for 'y', which
## will replace the existing scale.
## Scale for 'y' is already present. Adding another scale for 'y', which
## will replace the existing scale.
## Scale for 'y' is already present. Adding another scale for 'y', which
## will replace the existing scale.
## [1] "Biology other than EEB"
## [2] "Ecology (primarily computational-based)"
## [3] "Ecology (primarily field-based)"
## [4] "Ecology (primarily wet-lab based, including molecular ecology)"
## [5] "Evolutionary biology (primarily molecular)"
## [6] "Evolutionary biology (primarily organismal)"
## [7] "Outside biology"
## Warning in bind_rows_(x, .id): Unequal factor levels: coercing to character
## 'data.frame': 415 obs. of 10 variables:
## $ Journal : Factor w/ 3 levels "AmNat","Ecology",..: 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 ...
## $ Year : int 1956 1956 1956 1956 1956 1956 1956 1956 1956 1956 ...
## $ Volume : int 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
## $ Article.type : Factor w/ 10 levels "article","briefcomm",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
## $ First.page : Factor w/ 260 levels "1","100","103",..: 1 232 93 138 170 194 216 226 228 234 ...
## $ Author.names : Factor w/ 273 levels "","\xafkland & Bj\xbfrnstad",..: 215 93 33 171 246 119 182 27 74 221 ...
## $ Number.authors: int 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 3 1 ...
## $ Corresponding : Factor w/ 13 levels "1","2","20","3",..: 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 ...
## $ Notes : Factor w/ 34 levels "","all authors have email addresses, but specifies that first author is corresponding author",..: NA NA NA NA NA 19 NA NA 28 NA ...
## $ Correspondence: Factor w/ 6 levels "all","first",..: 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 ...
## Warning in bind_rows_(x, .id): Unequal factor levels: coercing to character
## Warning in bind_rows_(x, .id): Unequal factor levels: coercing to character
## Warning in bind_rows_(x, .id): Unequal factor levels: coercing to character
## Warning in bind_rows_(x, .id): Unequal factor levels: coercing to character